A Light and Uncertain Hold
by psdirkshen
Summary: Under the shadow of a dead world, two wounded souls find each other once more. But can a bond formed years before hold strong? Or has the passage of time and the influence of sinister outside forces severed any chance? The fall was merely the beginning. Some AU. Light/OC. (Chapters 1 and 2 will be re-edited and formatted in the coming weeks.)
1. A Day to Die

"U...useless..." The masked PSICOM soldiers coughed out to himself as he looked down at his broken and bloody body.

Staff Sergeant Ord Mandel had survived two fights with the renegade L'cie, survived the fall of Cocoon, and for the past year, survived the hundreds of firefights and skirmishes with the Guardian Corps. He'd killed countless numbers of the creatures that roamed the wilds of Pulse, lived through ambushes, being shot, stabbed, cut and explosions. But, as like thousands of his other PSICOM comrades, his number had come up.

"Damn it all anyway." He spat out with a shaky, pain wracked voice as he used his quickly fading energy to take off his helmet, which had become a hindrance to his ever swallowing breathing.

As his helmet came off and he breathed in the fresh air of springtime Pulse, he began to reflect on his life. "Did I do the right things?" He wondered as a hazy blackness began to take hold of his eyesight. He thought back to his five year long military career, the faces of hundreds of men he had served with flashing before him in a brief moment. He knew he had done the best he could as a soldier, but hell he only became one to impress a girl.

"I guess I impressed her alright..." He deliriously said aloud, before letting out a weak chuckle, "Of...all...the girls...I had to fall for her." The last images to enter his mind were of seemingly random things: A red kickball, a swing set in a park, an ice cream cone, a pine tree, a funeral, a hilltop, a swimming pool, clouds and blue sky, a stolen bottle of wine, a car, a beach, fireworks, and finally a small metal pendant.

To anyone else they would be meaningless, but to the dying soldier they were filled with a million memories, a thousand people, hundreds of words, but only one voice and one face.

12 years prior.

Summer in Bodhum had always been filled with excitement, none being more excited than the younger children of the seaside town. This summer had been no exception. But as anything in life it was coming to an end, the days filled with warm sun and games would be replaced by the long stale days of school, the bane of every child's existence.

"Good morning class." A short, plump woman of sixty said as she entered the classroom filled with 5th grade students. "My name is Mrs. Jackson and we are going to be spending your school year together, isn't that fun?" The woman was one of those "cheery" teachers that attempted to use her perpetual good mood to get students excited about the most mundane and monotonous aspects of school.

Before the gray haired woman could say anything else, there came a knock at the classroom door, to which she responded by opening the creaky wooden thing. In stepped a stately and well dressed man in his late fifties, followed by a rather irritated looking student of eleven.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt Mrs. Jackson, bu we have a new student who will be joining your class." The older man said in a voice fitting his station of principle.

"Oh no worries Principle Matthews!" Mrs. Jackson responded in her upbeat tone.

"Very well, I'll leave him with you." With that the principle took his leave with a nod, stranding the new student at the front of the room, were all eyes fixed upon him.

"What's your name?" Mrs. Jackson asked as she approached her desk, grabbing up the seating chart.

The boy looked around for a few brief moments, feeling more out of place than ever. "I'm...Ordius Mandel...but everyone calls me Ord." His voice was barely above a whisper, but neither his stance, of his tone, or his look showed any signs of his total discomfort at his situation.

The main reason he felt so out of place was that he was new, not just to the school but to Bodhum. He and his father had moved into town the day before, everything was new, even the ocean was strange to him, he'd never seen one before. The other reason he felt out of place was that he began to notice the clothing the students wore, all of it being from top of the line stores, the best of the best, yet here he was in ill fitting, worn clothes from were ever they had been the cheapest.

"A pleasure to meet you, I'm Mrs. Jackson and welcome." The teacher paused a moment as she looked over her seating chart one final time. "Alright, why don't you have a seat over there." She pointed towards an empty desk next to the wall.

Ord nodded as he walked over and sat down He went to set down his bookbag, but as he began to lean over to make sure it was out of the way, his forehead collided with something.

"Hey." A girl hissed at him as he recoiled away from the collision, rubbing the spot he had hit.

"S...sorry." He quickly offered in apology, opening his eyes to see who he had bumped into. His dark brown eyes were met with azure ones, which he quickly realized were glaring at him.

"Watch it next time, alright?" The girl replied with a sigh, her stern expression softening.

"I will." Ord managed out as he blinked and quickly turned his head away so he could feign interest in whatever the teacher was currently talking about, his mind still working over the image of the girl next to him. Her rose colored hair and blue eyes, the morning sun coming through the window behind her, making her seem to glow. In his short eleven years of life, he couldn't remember seeing anyone like her before.

He spent the entire morning stealing sidewards glances at the girl, while half attempting to pay attention to what was being taught in class.

His daze was broken by the recess bell, causing him to startle a bit. After putting away his school books inside his desk, he slowly made his way outside to the school playground, which consisted of dozens of brightly colored plastic slides and swings, all encircled by a chain link fence.

Having no friends and only having talked to one other student the entire morning, he chose to take a seat on the grass, his back leaning against the fence and began to read a book he had brought with him. Books were his one escape from life, the one place he could go and thrust himself out of his reality and into the shoes of some great hero. He'd always loved the books about adventures, or the ones about near mythical heroes of old who saved kingdoms from total annihilation by killing the dragon or facing down impossible hordes of monsters, only to stand victorious in the end. He wanted nothing more than to be that hero, to have people look up to him and to be able to inspire those around him.

As he he began to flip to another chapter, fully engrossed by the tail, he failed to notice the three male students approaching him, only becoming aware of them as they slapped the book from his hand.

"Hey new kid, whats wrong, too good to play with anyone?" The seeming leader of the group asked with a smirk.

"Go away." Ord said as he started to his feet, only to be pushed back down to the ground, landing on his backside with an"Umph."

"What'd you say twerp?"

Ord let out a sigh, a new school means new bullies. Quickly this time he jumped to his feet before any of the three could react. "I said go away, or are you too stupid to understand basic speech?"

The leader of the three's eyes opened wide, he hadn't expected Ord to stand up to him at all. "Alright listen here I'm gonna give you until the count of three to apologize for calling me stupid."

Ord reacted in a flash, grabbing a hold of the other kids shirt and shoving him down. "Go away, last time I'm gonna say it."

"How dare you..." The bully was cut off by a red kickball smacking him in the side of the head.

"I think he said go away, which I think you should do, unless you want to get beat up by a girl again." A voice familiar to Ord called out from the direction the ball had come from.

Ord hazarded a quick glance to the source, seeing the girl from his class who he had been quickly developing a slight crush on over the course of the past four hours, walking towards him.

Not forgetting the three other students in front of him, he quickly snapped his head back and glared. "Like I said, go away."

The two bullies that had been silent, slowly began to back away, not so much from Ord, but from the girl who was now walking up beside him. "Whatever." The leader said as he stood up and also began to move away, but not before calling back to Ord, "Watch yourself."

Ord let out a sigh, and began to look for his book, only to find it already being handed to him. "Your names Ord right?"

"Y...yeah." He manged to say sheepishly and took the offered book with a quick thanks.

"Don't worry about those three, they're idiots." The girl smiled at him, "My names Claire Farron." She held out her hand to him.

Taking her hand he smiled back at her, "Nice to meet you Claire."

Present

Lightning was growing impatient with every passing moment. She knew that the longer it took to evacuate the battlefield, the more they risked facing a PSICOM counter attack.

"Sazh!" Lightning snapped into the comm attached to her collar.

"Whats up?" Sazh's voice cracked back through the small device.

"How close to getting out of here are we?" She questioned, her irritation showing in her voice.

There was a pause on the other end for a moment. "Anytime it looks like."

"Alright, I'm on my way." With that Lightning shut off her comm and took one last look at the carnage left on the battlefield before rushing away to the awaiting transport.

The Guardian Corps had making raids like these on PSICOM bases and supply depots for the past five months with great effect. Ever since the fall, the remaining PSICOM troops that chose not to desert had been rallied by a handful of high ranking Sanctum soldiers and officers. Their goal was simple, bring their form of government to the people of Pulse as well as an overwhelming want for vengeance against the former L'cie for destroying what so many of them had fought and died to protect. The Guardian Corps for their part wanted nothing to do with the plan nor did they wish to turn a blind eye to the horrible atrocities that PSICOM and the Sanctum had committed. So, the GC sided with the former L'cie, causing PSICOM to lash out at them in a series of bloody skirmishes that left hundreds of civilians dead. From those bloody weeks after the fall the spark of war caught, going from minor engagements and propaganda campaigns to full blown open warfare in a matter of months. The GC and the vast majority of the survivors from the fall of Cocoon did all they could to try and build a new world, while keeping the PSICOM threat at bay, but it was too much of a strain and causing far too many lives to be lost. So in the recent months The Guardian Corps, with the aid of a new all volunteer militia army, began to strike first, raiding PSICOM installations, an attempt to eliminate the threat before it could do too much damage.

Lightning and the former L'cie did all they could to assist with the war effort. Lightning rejoined the GC and was given the rank of Captain, Sazh became a transport pilot, while Snow and the Nora crew became instrumental parts of the new militia. Serah and Hope lent their skills as well, with Serah becoming a nurse in one of the military hospitals and Hope taking part in the logistics and supply end of the new military.

This most recent raid had been the largest success to date, not only had they managed to capture several thousand tons of supplies and weapons, but they also managed to eliminate four full battalions of PSICOM troops, a good number of them being PSICOM elite. The bad side had been a much higher number of casualties for the GC and militia force than expected, something that was inevitable in war, but none the less, still hard to deal with.

"Alright, we good Sazh?" Lightning asked as she rushed aboard the transport.

"Yeah, all clear." Sazh replied above the roar of the thruster starting up, "Hang on to something soldier girl, we are outta here."

With that the craft lurched upwards and into the air, gaining altitude slowly. Lightning let out a sigh of relief once they were a good twenty yards off the ground. Taking a seat by the door, she looked out on the gruesome scene below as the they slowly cruised over the bodies and debris of war below.

"Sazh, how many of the PSICOM wounded were we able to get?" Lightning asked. It was a common practice by the GC, take the enemy wounded off the battlefield, give them medical care and give them the choice of either joining the ranks of GC and militia forces, or going back to PSICOM to be tried and executed as traitors. They almost always chose to side with the GC, knowing full well that PSICOM would kill them. It was an effective strategy, thinning the PSICOM ranks while bolstering their own.

"Around seventy five maybe more, even got a few elites." Sazh replied.

Lightning was rather elated, although she would never show it outwardly. Elites were a treasure trove of intel if someone could get them to talk. "Glad to hear it."

The rest of the flight went by without any issues, it even afforded Lightning a good half hour of sleep, something that had been a rare commodity in the past few days, with all the mission planning and briefings she had to endure.

A good two hours after take off, the craft finally landed at the base, being the last transport to arrive. Things on the ground were much more chaotic than expected, due to the high number of wounded that were being brought back from the fighting. Stretcher crews and medical personnel off all types ran about at a frantic pace, unloading the transports of wounded, separating the critical cases from the minor ones and finally getting them sent to correct parts of the medical facilities for care.

Other soldiers were taking on the gruesome task of unloading body bags from transports, moving them towards the bases morgue were the bodies would be processed. Others still were washing blood and debris out of the transports, while still others moved PSICOM prisoners to the containment facility were they would wait to be processed for interrogation. To the untrained eye the whole spectacle would seem to be nothing but chaos, but it was a well executed and efficient, orderly type of chaos that had been preformed hundreds of times.

Lightning herself, as well as the other battle weary soldiers made their way towards the debriefing room, were they would sit for the next two hours and go over the mission and find out how successful it had been, at least based on the initial information. It also would help to give the soldiers a few hours to relax after being in combat, taking their minds off of the countless questions that always played out after an engagement, the ones they had no time to deal with in the heat of combat.


	2. Starting Over

It has been six days since the overwhelmingly successful assault against Psicom's outpost. The officers and enlisted troops involved in the attack had been praised by more senior officers and top ranking brass than many even knew existed. Those who had been in the fighting quickly grew tired of the constant praise they received at every turn. Old, portly officers, their chests covered in medals and ribbons, made a point to give the soldiers a pat on the back and of course tell them how they wished they'd have been there and of how glorious it must have been. The soldiers in turn merely nodded, the memories of the battle being that of terror, noise, dirt and death, glory was strangely absent in their minds.

For Captain Lightning Farron, she simply relished the chance for life to return to a somewhat normal pace. Having spent the better part of the past six days in meetings or attending the funerals for the slain, she now wished only to return to her normal routine of waking up, going to work, doing patrols around the city for eight hours and coming home. She hadn't seen her sister but for a total of ten minutes since everything was over, never mind the rest of her friends. So on this day she had awoken early and made it to her spartan office early in an attempt to get paper work down, allowing her to go on patrol and not be relegated to her desk all day.

Coffee cup in hand, the young woman wove her way through the ever growing crowd inside the mess hall near her office. While the day was only beginning for most on the base, she had already put in three hours, the coffee a simple reward to herself for completing her paperwork in record time.

Lightning had only feet to go to the exit when a familiar voice caught her attention.

"Sis, wait up!" Serah half yelled.

Lightning quickly stopped, a little too quickly, causing some of the contents of her cup to spill out on her hand, eliciting a slight wince from the woman. "Serah, not that I'm not glad to see you but," The elder sibling paused a moment, "what're doing here?"

Coming to a full stop in front of her older sister, Serah's tired eyes quickly lit up. "Cafeteria at the hospital isn't open yet, so a few of us came down here to get something to eat." The younger Farron's normally bubbly voice had a dullness about it, no doubt brought on by the long, exhausting hours of treating wounded in the recent days. "But I also wanted to see if I could find you."

Lightning's features softened, a small but warm smile coming over her face. "Well, I'd offer to stay and eat with you, but I'm on the clock currently."

Serah shook her head, "No, I know you're busy." She paused, "But I actually was wondering if you could stop by the hospital around eleven, when my shift ends."

Lightning furrowed her eyebrows slightly, "Why? Somethin..."

Serah cut her off, "No nothing's wrong, I just wanted to show you something."

Lightning took a moment to consider the strange emotion that flashed across her sister's face briefly when she spoke before answering. "Alright, but you're being pretty vague about this."

Serah just simply smiled back at her before reach out and giving Lightning's free hand a quick squeeze. "See you at eleven." With that she was off, quickly being lost from Lightning's sight in the ever growing sea of half-awake people in the now crowded mess hall. The soldier simply shook her head slightly before carefully moving through the crowed and out of the building.

"Just what the hell is she up to?" Lighting asked herself as she made her way towards her office, the subject quickly vanishing in her thoughts as more current issues came to mind.

At eleven am sharp, the main door to the military hospital slid open, startling the half asleep private manning the front desk. Quickly waking himself up, the young man of eighteen came face to face with the emotionless face of a woman who he had heard was one of the toughest and iciest soldiers in the entire military. Stories of how hard she was on the soldiers under her command had made her a sort of legend among those who were fresh out of basic, like himself. The one officer on the entire base, who you never wanted to catch you slacking in the slightest, had just caught him nearly asleep.

Standing quickly and throwing a sharp salute, the young soldier only accomplished knocking his knee into the desk, sending a stack of papers floating to the ground around him. "C..Captain Farron, ma'am"

Lightning watched the spectacle before her unfold with a cocked eyebrow, her face void of emotion, her eyes hard, as she did her best to choke back the laugh building inside her. Slowly returning the salute, she finally let a slight grin tug at her lips and a one syllable laugh come from her throat.

"As you where private." With that she continued walking; only stopping when she found that young man was still rigidly standing, unmoving from his spot. With another chuckle she looked at him again. "Private, how long have you been out of basic?"

"About a month ma'am." He replied quickly.

Crossing her arms across her chest and ever so slightly tilting her head she continued. "I'm guessing that when you signed up for the service you didn't picture yourself as a glorified greeter?"

The young man loosened slightly, turning to face her, "No, I didn't."

"What did you want to do?"

He swallowed slightly, "Well, honestly I wanted to be an infantrymen, you know, do patrols around the city, defend the people."

The young Captain appraised him a moment longer, "Come by my office tomorrow at seven am sharp and I'll have you transferred over to my unit." With that she turned and began to walk away before looking over her shoulder and speaking again, That is, unless you really want to spend the next few years napping at that desk." With that she was gone down the hallway and out of sight.

The young soldier simply stood with eyes bulging and mouth slightly open. He might not have known it then, but he, Private Jason Reed, would be in her office tomorrow morning.

"So when are you going to tell me why I'm here?" Lightning asked as she followed her younger sister down the overwhelmingly white corridors of the hospital.

With a sigh the younger Farron answered as she stepped through an open doorway and into a small double occupant room. "Far bed, take a look."

Letting out her own sigh, the elder Farron walked over to said bed and looked down on the obviously badly wounded soldier laying there. Her eyes quickly took in the numerous tubes and monitors until landing on the silver handcuff that fastened him to the bed.

Turning to her sister she asked, "You took me all this way to see some unconscious Psicom prisoner who was wounded?"

Rolling her aqua eyes, Serah walked to the man's bedside and slowly shook his shoulder. "Hey wake up, I brought you a visitor."

Lightning quickly stepped forward, "Serah, what the..." Her voice trailed off as something about him began to make her memory kick into overdrive.

Underneath the months old growth of brown facial hair, bruises and half healed cuts the covered his face she saw a glimmer of familiarity. Upon closer inspection even more familiar points began to stand out. Just as she was about to move her head closer for a better look, to deep brown eyes opened beneath long overgrown brown bangs.

Blinking the sleep from his eyes, the man shifted slightly, looking first to the sight of his well-known nurse before switching to the other presence he was now fully aware of in the room. The ice blue eyes, pale skin, marred only in the slightest by faint nearly healed bruises, the tendrils of pink hair hanging over her shoulder and finally the slight glint of a small metal pendant, one he knew very well, hanging around her neck.

The young man let loose a toothy grin with some effort before closing his eyes slightly and reopening them before speaking. His words slightly labored, "Hey Light."

For her part Lightning Farron was speechless. Lying before her, looking like reheated hell, was someone she had thought for sure dead. She was sure he was dead before the Purge even. But here he was, broken, but alive.

After what seemed like forever she finally found her voice as she slowly made her way to his side and unconsciously grabbed his hand to make sure he was indeed real. "Ord?" Her voice barely above a whisper as she felt him grip her hand.

Now grinning ear to ear, he replied, "Yeah, it's me."

Several moments past before a resounding slap echoed through the room, out the door and down the hall.

"You bastard, do you have any..." Lightning stopped herself, yanking her hand out of his and glaring at him for a moment before turning on her heel and quickly leaving the room.

Ord blinked for a moment before bringing his hand to his face, which now was sporting an angry red mark. Still grinning, he turned to Serah who wore a look of shock and was on the verge of letting loose a string of apologies.

"Well can't say I didn't see that coming." He said as a slight chuckle erupted from his throat.

Outside of the room in the hallway Lightning had heard his comment, her anger subsiding a bit. Getting ready to continue on her way, not wanting to deal with the mixture of emotions, she heard him speak again.

"But damn it, that hurt a lot more than I remember."

At that Lightning felt her anger dissipate and turn more towards irritation as she walked away, a smirk on her lips. "Smart ass...something's never changes." She said under her breath.

I'm back after close to a year, though for me it doesn't seem like it. Anyway, I do apologize for my absence and intend to begin weekly updates of this story. To all of you who read this, thank you. To all of you who took the time and effort to review, fav or follow, a very heartfelt thank you, I hope this lives up to your expectations.


	3. What We Had Been

"_We'll be landing in five, gentlemen." The pilot's voice called out over the transport's intercom._

_Ord gave a slight sigh as he rolled his shoulders and leaned forward in his seat. He was tired; seven hours of flight time in a military transport was nothing short of torture. Cracking his neck he looked towards the other members of his squad to find each of them in various stages of obvious discomfort as well. He leaned back into his seat as he felt the ship begin to descend towards their destination._

_After landing and retrieving his gear from the cargo hold, Ord and the other six men with him slowly made their way towards the bustling terminal of Bodhum's airport. The last time he had set his eyes on this place he was seventeen years old. He had been leaving Bodhum for Eden to go through Psicom's basic training. Now he was returning as a veteran Psicom soldier, a staff sergeant on a special recon team._

"_So" A voice from behind Ord began. "How's it feel to be back home sarge?" _

"_Feels good corporal." Ord smiled slightly as he spoke._

"_You got a girl back here staff sergeant?" Another one of the men with him asked with obvious amusement in his voice. _

_Without missing a beat Ord retorted. "Not unless your mother lives here." _

"_Ha- ha." The young soldier behind him replied dryly. "Come on I'm being serious." _

_Ord chuckled to himself. "I guess you could say I do." It wasn't totally a lie. He did have someone back here. They never had defined what their relationship was, or revealed much in the way of feelings towards each other. Friends with benefits didn't really fit. It was deeper than that. But at the same time they really weren't boyfriend and girlfriend either. Hell for all he knew she could be dating some other guy, or even engaged. He hadn't really talked to her but maybe once or twice in the past year. But he truly hoped that his returning here would maybe change their relationship, even if he was only going to be here for a week. Maybe she would see him in a different way now._

_One hour later found the seven men standing inside a class room in the Bodhum Guardian Corps' training center, as they awaited the arrival of twenty G.C. soldiers who they would be training in recon and scout sniper tactics. This was all part of some new program that Psicom and the G.C. had come up with to assimilate the two forces into better working together. At first Ord wanted nothing to do with the program that was until he saw that Bodhum had requested a recon team to come train a hand-picked group of its best. Then upon getting his hands on a copy of the list of soldiers that would be training and saw "Sergeant L. Farron" he volunteered immediately. After getting the go ahead he had asked his squad if they would like to take part, playing up the fact that Bodhum was basically a beachside resort town. It had taken little to convince the soldiers, who hadn't had a vacation in over a year, to agree._

_When the door finally opened and the twenty G.C. soldiers entered they were greeted by seven Psicom men standing in formation at the front of the room. Instead of the typical Psicom armor and masks; these men wore simple black cotton military cut blouses, pleated black pants which bloused into shin high black leather boots and finally red berets on their heads. _

_Ord watched as the trainees took their seats his eyes focused on a spot above and behind their heads. He only broke that gaze when he caught a flash of pink enter his peripheral vision. He allowed only a quick glance before returning his gaze to its previous place. He realized even after Lightning had sat down she still had not noticed him at the front of the room. She seemed to be lost in reading a file; an over view of the course he figured. _

_Once the group was seated and was silent Ord finally spoke. "My name is Staff Sergeant Mandel of Psicom's rapid deployment division."_

_As he spoke he began to pace in the front of the room, hands behind his back. As he turned in his walk he looked out of the corner of his eye to find a rather shocked looking Lightning Farron staring at him. _

"_My squad and I are here to teach you the basics of long range recon and scout sniper operations." He turned and faced the room. "All the men you see standing here have completed not only scout sniper recon school but have at the very least one year of real world combat deployments." His gaze swept across the faces in front of him. "We have one week together starting tomorrow." He paused and cleared his throat. "For today your task is to read up on the basics of how to operate some of the equipment we will be using." Scanning the faces before him one last time, Ord returned to his original position in the front of the room. "Any questions?" _

"_Staff Sergeant." One young man said as he stood, indicating he had a question. Ord nodded to the man. "Are we going to get much range time in with the rifles?" _

_Ord nodded again. "Yes we will be spending a lot of our time at the range. By the end of this course you will be able to engage and eliminate moving targets up to one thousand yards away." _

_The young man gave a thank you and sat down. After a few more minutes of answering questions and handing out manuals on equipment the class was dismissed. As the soldiers slowly filed out, Ord noticed Lightning hanging back not making any moves towards the door. Instead she was winding her way towards the front of the class until she was only a few feet from him._

"_Staff Sergeant, might I have a word with you?" She paused and peered behind Ord towards his squad mates before continuing. "Alone if you don't mind." Her voice was cool and her face was a blank slate as she awaited his response._

_Ord nodded before turning to his men. "Why don't you guys head back to the hotel and hit the town or something. I'll catch up with you a bit later." _

_His men nodded in reply and made their way from the room, several of them grinning back towards their sergeant as they left._

_When the last one left and closed the door behind him, Ord turned back to Lightning slowly. He was met with a glare and a single raised eyebrow. _

"_Two calls in the past year no letter no nothing and then you just show up out of the blue like this. What the hell Ord?" The irritation was evident in her voice; a scowl firmly set on her features. _

_Ord swallowed hard. He'd had foreseen this reaction from her for some time. "Light I'm sorry." He began. "You know I can't call when I'm in the field."_

_Her only response was a slight eye twitch. "You mean to tell me you've been in the field non-stop except for those two particular days?" _

_Ord sighed "No I haven't." He took a step toward her. "But you know it's a two way street. You never call me." _

"_I have no idea when you're around. You're never able to tell me when you deploy or when you get back." She let out a sigh._

_There was only one way Ord could think of to get her to stop being pissed at him. In one sudden movement he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her face to his, pressing his lips against hers. _

_She struggled for a few moments; throwing her hands against his chest in an attempt to push him away that she didn't follow through with. Instead she began to kiss him back, the hands on his chest grabbing fistfuls of his uniform as she pulled him down further to herself._

_A few moments later found the two breaking for air. Both their faces flushed and their breathing came in slight gasps._

"_Idiot." Was all Lightning managed to say but her voice held none of its earlier venom._

_Ord chuckled slightly as the pink haired soldier broke from his embrace and walked towards the door._

"_I get off duty in half an hour." She paused and glanced over her shoulder at him, a faint smile on her lips. "Meet me in the front parking lot and don't be late."_

"_Wouldn't dream of it Light." Ord replied as he smiled back at her._

* * *

_They had spent the afternoon together talking at a local café. Catching up on lost time and reminiscing about the past. He had told her a bit about some of his deployments to put down rioting in Eden and she had told about dealing with some smaller scale riots and protests in Bodhum. They had covered numerous topics including Serah and the fact that that she had begun to hang around with Snow Villers and crew, a person neither Ord nor Light could stand._

_It wasn't until after they had left the café that Ord felt the pangs of longing in his heart. He'd missed her far more than he realized. Guilt had washed across his body over the fact that his job forced him to have so little contact with Lightning. _

_After arriving back at her and Serah's home and surprising the latter the three had dinner together talking and laughing, their friendships picking up right where they had left off. To Ord this was home and these two where his family. _

_Shortly after midnight, Ord found himself standing on the steps of the house smoking a cigarette. His hair was disheveled as where his clothes. He wore a look of complete satisfaction on his face as he slowly exhaled smoke into the cooling night air. It hadn't taken long after Serah had gone to bed for him and Light to find they were unable to keep their hands to themselves. One moment they had been sitting on the couch talking, the next they were in her room, a trail of shed clothes leading to the bed. _

_Shaking his head slightly as he finished smoke and returned inside another feeling was squeezing at his heart. He was done with this game of theirs in which neither of them brought up feelings. It seemed that since he'd been seventeen and she sixteen and they had first been intimate, that all the budding starts of a real relationship that went deeper than sex had been snuffed out. Was the handful of times that they had sex all she really wanted? He often wondered to himself. _

_He'd tried on several occasions to bring up the idea of defining a deeper connection between them but every time she seemed uninterested in the idea or she shut him down completely from that line of thinking._

_But tonight he was determined to get through to her come hell or high water. Snuffing out his cigarette he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small case. Looking at it for a moment he took a deep breath and steadied himself for what was to come. With a final deep breath he entered back inside._

"_Light, we need to talk." Ord said as he stepped back into her bedroom to find her to have just finished changing into a tank top and shorts for bed._

_Lightning stopped what she was doing and looked up at him quizzically. "Alright about what?" _

_With a sigh Ord sat down on the bed, the frame creaking slightly as he did. "About us."_

_She felt her breath hitch in her throat. She knew this was bound to come up sooner or later but had not expected it so soon. "What about us?" Her voice held a tone of warning, a perfect mask for the fear that would otherwise have had laced into it._

_He turned to fully face her. "Light…" he paused "Claire I'm done beating around the bush and I'm done being confused as all hell with our relationship." He stopped a moment letting the words sink in. "I love you and damn it I want you to at least tell me one way or the other what you feel towards me and I for damn sure want to figure out what the hell we have between us." _

_Lightning wanted to get angry at him. She wanted to yell at him and tell him to get out. But she couldn't. Deep down she knew that the truth was she loved him, that she wanted to be with him. But she couldn't tell him that. She knew that if she really told him how she felt and she allowed her emotions for him to surface she would lose him. He'd be taken just like her father and her mother. She couldn't lose him, she couldn't lose anyone else in her life; she just couldn't._

"_Light, please, say something." Ord begged; the look of fear that had crossed over her eyes for but a brief moment had scared him to no end._

"_I don't love you." Was all she managed to say, it was nothing more than a feint whisper but it hit Ord like a train._

_For a moment he was speechless. But suddenly a realization swept through him. "I won't leave you Claire." He paused and looked into her eyes. "If you think that if you admit that you care for me I'm going to suddenly up and die, you're wrong. I'm not going anywhere I'll always come back to you always." _

_She had never before realized how well he was able to read her. Even through all the walls she put up he still saw the real her. For the first time in years she felt the cold barriers that had created Lightning fall and crumble leaving only Claire, that scared and heartbroken fifteen year old girl._

_Nothing more was said between them that night. No words would be needed. Claire Farron fell asleep after spending hours being held in Ord's arms crying tears of repressed pain._

_The next morning they had made each other a promise. Ord promised he would never leave, that he would always find his way back to her no matter what. Lightning for her part promised that she would trust his promise and that even though it would take time, she would be able to hopefully show her feelings for him as well. As a sign of his promise Ord gave her a gift. A small jewel encrusted metal necklace in the shape of a lightning bolt._

_That afternoon Ord received a frantic phone call from Eden. He was being recalled to be a part of a select team for a top secret emergency mission to Pulse. As he and Lightning said their goodbyes he repeated his promise, he would come back. _

_As she watched the transport take off a deep sense of foreboding fell over her. Something would go wrong, she knew it. But she would stay strong, knowing that Ord did not make promises lightly or often._

* * *

Ord awoke with a start. He had dreamed of that day which now felt like a lifetime ago. During the events leading up to the fall he had cursed himself daily because he wasn't able to have been there with Lightning and Serah. He tried, time and again after making his own escape from quarantine, to find Lightning during those turbulent weeks. But each time he got close the circumstances had made it impossible for him to reveal who he was to the L'cie.

The sound of the metal door to his room opening broke him from the recess of his memory. He watched wearily as three armed G.C. soldiers entered his room.

"Prisoner" The man who appeared to be the leader began. "We have spoken to your doctor. He feels that your injuries, while grave, have healed enough to be moved to the medical wing of the P.O.W. camp."

Ord cocked an eyebrow. "Well it's about time! I only came close to bleeding to death. Just a walk in the park right?" The humor in his voice had no effect on the stoic faced soldiers.

Ord took a moment to gauge a reaction. "Wow, tough crowd." He cleared his throat. "I mean it's not like I was shooting at you guys a week ago or something." Again his attempts at humor failed to bring any noticeable change to the soldiers in his room.

'_These guys make Light look like the happiest person on Pulse.' _Ord thought to himself as his handcuff was taken off.

As he got dressed in his now clean and patched uniform, he glanced at the clock in the room. It read 3:30AM, making Ord pause a moment before turning to his guards.

"So why we doing this in the middle of the night?" Ord asked aloud.

"We are not at liberty to discuss that. Now if you would please hurry." The soldier replied stiffly.

Ord only nodded in mute response as he finished getting ready for his move.

'_Something's not right.' _Was his only thought.

* * *

In her room, Lightning was still wide awake as she angrily glared at the alarm clock on her nightstand. The hateful devices red numbering seemed to glare back at her.

She had spent a good three hours being ignored by Serah and another hour trying to find a subtle way to apologize to her younger sibling for the way she acted in Ord's room earlier that day. The feelings that had rushed back to her in those few moments had threatened to overwhelm her. She felt all at once if she was drowning in dark sea, churning with storms and no safe harbor in sight. She had reacted purely on impulse just doing what came naturally to her.

Despite the torrent of long buried emotions and feelings, she had instantly felt bad about hitting him and suddenly leaving. So now adding to her overwhelming emotional roller coaster the pangs of guilt and regret had begun to take hold and eat away at her.

With a groan, the pink haired soldier finally managed to push herself from the bed. Quickly dressing in sweat pants and sweatshirt and grabbing her identification pass she made to leave the house. A few feet from the door something stopped her. Looking back towards her room she grabbed her service pistol and tucked into her waistband. She had only carried that weapon a few times in the past, instead resigning it to her nightstand as a possible means of self-defense. What had compelled her to take it with her; she had no idea.

With quick strides the young soldier was soon out the door and well on her way to the base hospital. Despite her initial reaction she wanted desperately to see the man who had seemingly risen from the dead. She also hoped that her returning in the middle of the night would be taken as a way to smooth over the earlier incident.

Being so absorbed in her thoughts and nearly caused her to miss the slight commotion on one of the side streets. Her interest peeked she double checked the firearm she had brought with her and stealthily advanced towards the sounds.

* * *

"Anyone smoke?" Ord asked as he was being escorted by the three men.

When one of the men nodded in confirmation, Ord asked if he could bum a cigarette to which the man obliged as the four of them paused for a few moments to allow him to light it.

After taking a few deep drags and flicking away the burnt ash Ord smirked and faced the men. "You know I can smell Sanctum assholes a mile off. Guess you could call it a gift."

The three men recoiled slightly but said nothing.

"So what's the plan fellas? Drag me to some back street and shoot me?" Ord said calmly, still smirking at the men.

In a flash the leader of the group produced a pistol only to have Ord smash his shoulder into him, knocking the gun out of his hands.

"Kill him!" Yelled the man as he fell.

Repeating his earlier move, Ord rushed the other two men, knocking one into the other and finally to the ground. Straining his still healing body, Ord took off from the scene with what might he could muster.

He made it nearly twenty feet before the sound of a pistol hammer being cocked back caused him to drop behind the nearest dumpster. A few moments passed as three sets of footsteps approached rapidly. No doubt his assailants moving in close for the killing blow. The little bit of exertion had sapped the young man of much of his strength. Knowing that any attempt at his resistance would be useless he calmed himself and waited for the shot.

"This fucking figures." Ord muttered under his breath.

When a shot finally came it was quickly followed by six more, all of which were too far to have come from his attackers.

Several breathless moments passed before he felt a presence behind him followed by a voice that cut through him nearly knocking the air from his lungs.

"You have three minutes to tell me what the hell just happened." A slightly winded and obviously pissed Lightning Farron said to him.

A toothy grin spread across Ord's face as he began to scratch the back of his head. "Might need a few hours to cover that subject."

* * *

**A/N**

**So yeah, weekly updates didn't happen as you can obviously tell. But I'm back with more! Thank you again to all of you who have read this story and a special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to Follow, Fav, Review, means a lot to me. **

**Also, wanted to take a moment to give a massive thank you to my Beta, the very talented Y.G.P. (This is the point you go to said profile and read their stories if you haven't already =P). **

**Until next time! **

_._


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